


Caught

by RottenFruitz



Category: Monster Hunter (Video Games)
Genre: there are a few palamutes in there too
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-06
Updated: 2020-10-06
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:29:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,669
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26852983
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RottenFruitz/pseuds/RottenFruitz
Summary: Rilla is caught by a group of three hunters she attempts to steal from, then given her sentence by a judge. This takes place sometime after 'Rilla and Oldie'.
Kudos: 6





	Caught

**Author's Note:**

> This may end up being a sort-of prologue to a story I want to write about Rilla, Electra, and the rest of her hunting party, but my inspiration and desire to write comes and goes a lot, so who knows when/if that'll happen.

“We have you cornered, ya filthy thief! Come down here now and we’ll only beat you a little!”

A rock was flung at Rilla’s back. It hit its mark, but her coat protected her from any serious harm. Still, the surprise made her jolt and lose her grip on the cliff she was scaling. She slid down a few inches, a few vines breaking under her fingers.

_ Shit. _

Rilla grit her teeth and kept going, ignoring the angry shouts of the hunters and palicoes she’d robbed. She only paused when she heard the angry cries turn into encouraging ones.

A palamute and a palico howled in what seemed like a supportive gesture while their hunters cheered.

“Go get her Electra!” one voice said.

“Whup ’em so bad ’is legs turn black and blue!”

_ Electra. _

That name sounded familiar. Wasn’t she that “elder dragon specialist” or whatever?

Whoever she was, she was bad news. She heaved herself up the vine-covered cliff-face with ease, her eyes determined and dead at the same time. It clashed with her wild, cheerful blue hair. Rilla gasped when she saw how close the hunter had gotten in so little time. She swung herself over the cliff and took off running. Electra followed close behind her. Just as she thought she might be able to outrun her, something soared over her head and landed at her feet. She realized what it was a second before it went off.

_ A flash bomb. _

Rilla went tumbling to the ground, and the hunter was on her in seconds. The rest of her posse caught up pretty fast and surrounded her. The thief realized how bad she’d fucked up long before the flash bomb’s effect wore off. They would find out her secret identity sooner or later, and those mutts  _ had _ to be able to smell Old Girl on her. It was curtains. And she hadn’t even gone out during some grand stunt either! As her eyesight returned, she was greeted with the pleasant sight of a large palamute breathing on her face, its teeth bared.

A lynian with black and purple-tinted fur bounded up to Electra and slapped her on the back. “Oi! Good job, ’Lectra! Now tie ’im up to th’ tree so we can beat this fool senseless!” he said. He paused for a second, then said the same thing again, but in sign language.

Huh, the elder dragon specialist was deaf. Who would’ve thought.

Electra snorted and held out her hand. Another hunter slapped a rope into her palm, and she made short work of tying Rilla up. She didn’t prop the thief up and allow the beatings to commence, though, like everyone had been assuming she would. She grunted and stood protectively over her when one of her companions picked up a large stick.

“What?” he asked. His hair was as blue as hers. They had the same face shape, too. They must be related.

Electra started to sign. “No. We take the money back, we take him to a city, have him tried. I know who this is,” she said.

Rilla raised an eyebrow at that comment. She wasn’t expecting a hunter of all people to be up to date on the different roadside thieves. Those guys were untouchable (to other humans, anyway), the pillars of society even  _ she _ hesitated to rob.

The blue-haired guy squinted at Rilla. When he recognized her, his eyes started to burn with hatred. “Oh, yeah, I know who this is. We really should beat him senseless for everything he’s done!”

Electra raised her hands to speak, but a growl from their palamute made her pause. Two of the bloody things had, just as Rilla feared, picked up the scent of Old Girl. Their hackles were raised and their eyes were wild with fear and anticipation. That stupid brute was loyal to a fault; she hadn’t left the area yet.

“Monster!” a young felyne whispered, “A big one!”

Rilla couldn’t stop her eyes from widening.

“What’s with the look, thief?” the blue-haired guy asked.

“I… uh…” Rilla swallowed, “D-Don’t, that monster, she’s just…”

Another hunter, this one with long black hair, pulled up her binoculars to look into the distance. “I think I see something. A brute tigrex! With… a… saddle?” she said.

The fourth hunter and felyne both spoke at the same time:  _ “A Rider?!” _

“She hasn’t got one of those weird stones,” the blue-haired guy said.

“Tch, wotta’ mis’rable joke of a Rider! Wait ’till a judge ’ears this!” the black felyne laughed as he spoke, “Thief, is yore monster a wild one?”

“She’s got brain damage, I think, she wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Rilla said, “I’ll even call her over for you.” Without waiting for an answer, she did her best to whistle for Old Girl. The large brute heard her and came cantering over. Thank goodness she didn’t realize Rilla was in any danger. “Don’t hurt her, she doesn’t know anything.”

“We’ll see to it that th’ beastie is taken care of,” the cat replied dismissively, “However that may be.”

“Let’s get him back to the town,” the black-haired girl said, “Electra can carry him. I’ll keep an eye on the monster.”

“Let’s hurry before she gets any ideas,” the blue-haired guy agreed.

The thief spent the journey to her doom watching the black felyne explain what had happened in sign language to Electra.

***

Once Rilla had been taken to the town, things had gone from bad to worse pretty fast. Her chest was hurting; she’d been wearing her tight clothes for way too long. She would rather  _ not _ get herself killed and had to beg the hunters to let her take some of them off and breathe. Of course, Electra had been the one to let her do it.

The hunters put two and two together pretty quick afterwards and were even more furious at her, although that black-haired hunter seemed more impressed than upset, and Electra’s eyes were still as dead as ever.

The judge was none too pleased about Rilla’s…  _ antics _ either. He seemed especially disgusted by Old Girl, who was sitting peacefully outside the town, unaware she was being tried for crimes she didn’t know she’d committed.  _ (Yeesh. She really was a monster, huh?) _ The black-haired girl was watching her, while Electra stood guard at Rilla’s side. It was unnecessary, considering she was still firmly tied up. That black felyne, whose name was Ricotta, was there to translate everything for the deaf hunter.

The judge looked annoyed, like he wasn’t expecting to come to work today. The jury seemed to feel the same way. “Alright, let’s get this over with,” the judge sighed, “You, Rilla, the infamous Roadside Thief, are accused of petty thievery, grand larceny, assault, assault with a… deadly weapon… er… monster, and conspiring to commit grand larceny—”

Well, they had no proof of  _ that _ .

“—How do you plead?”

“Guilty,” Rilla said. Whispers rose from the jury.

“Good, so my job will be easier,” the judge replied. He gave Rilla a well-deserved, intensely angry look as he continued, “The damage you’ve done to some of the good people of this earth is irreparable. You’ve stolen family heirlooms, used that  _ beast _ to tear down walls and steal everything in your reach. You’ve threatened merchants on the road, held knives to their necks and left them with scars. If it weren’t for the laws of this fair town, I think the jury and I would have agreed to put you to death.”

The jury murmured in agreement.

“Instead, I present the jury with this sentence: this thief, if found guilty, will be put to work until she clears her debts or dies. The hunters have informed me that the monster is pleasant in temperament, so we will deliver her to someone who will take better care of her. As for the evidence, we brought several hunters and trusted authorities to review and make certain we have the right person…”

The next few minutes went by as a mixture of nostalgia and self-hate as her crimes (and the manner she did them in) were recounted to her and the jury. They didn’t need to; Rilla was willing to admit what she’d done. It felt like they were doing it out of necessity, so no one could say this trial was unfair. With each crime and set of evidence they listed, the jury grew increasingly vocal about their distaste. When they got to her latest crime—the one where she’d enticed some large monsters to attack a city so she could rob them blind while they defended themselves—they looked like they wanted to beat her to death.

Fair enough.

The deliberation between the jury was short. She was guilty, and she was going to slave away in the harshest conditions the law would allow until the day she died. At least Old Girl would be with someone better than her now—

“Electra,” the judge said abruptly, “I request that you be the one to see this thief’s punishment carried out for the first few years of her sentence.”

Rilla instantly knew what the idea was. She’d be killed by some horrifying elder dragon on the job, and it wouldn’t technically be breaking any laws. Pretty clever, honestly.

Electra considered the agreement after Ricotta translated the question for her. She responded a few seconds later, and Ricotta translated.

“She’ll do it,” he said, “But she wants t’know what sorta’ quests yore expecting Rilla to undertake.”

“Anything you want,” the judge said grimly, “She will be in your charge for the next three years.”

Once Electra knew what the judge wanted from her, Rilla saw the slightest twitch in her face. She signed again, Ricotta translated again.

“She’s still on board,” he said, “She’ll make sure the thief is taken care of appropriately. And she’d like to take care of the tigrex as well.”

“I… will allow it, I suppose.”

Rilla suppressed a sigh.

The rest of her life was going to be interesting.


End file.
